


After the Speech

by Celandine



Category: King's Speech (2010)
Genre: Character Development, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-28
Updated: 2011-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-15 04:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Celandine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bertie reflects.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Speech

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Your Cruise Director (cruisedirector)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruisedirector/gifts).



His Royal Majesty George VI, by the grace of God King of the United Kingdom and the British dominions beyond the seas, King of Ireland, and Emperor of India, reclined in his bath. The hot water lapped around his shoulders as he let the thoughts that had teased at his mind for hours come to the fore.

Tonight he had given a speech to stir the nation to war. He should be thinking of the solemnity of the occasion, of the danger, no, the _certainty_ of death and destruction that lay before them all. He remembered the Great War all too well, as did millions of his subjects. What madness in Hitler's psyche led him to draw Europe, perhaps the world, into another such dreadful conflict? Or did he think the memory of war would frighten them so much as to give him whatever he wanted to prevent it happening again?

But these facts, though essential to be contemplated, and soon, were not the ones to occupy his mind now. He remembered the pride in Elizabeth's eyes after the speech, the shiver of desire that ran through him to know that he had lived up to her expectations. Alongside that was the memory of a similar pride in Lionel's eyes. What disturbed Bertie now, so that he held his breath and ducked under the water for as long as he could stand, was the realization that he felt the same need for the man as he did for his wife.

**Author's Note:**

> For cruisedirector, who suggested the prompt "tease," although it's not a proper drabble.


End file.
